Abstract

Pulsed Electric Fields (PEF) exhibit significant potential to modify proteins and enzymes, enhancing their enzymatic activity and increasing bioactive peptide production. This work aimed to enhance the obtention of bioactive peptides using PEF as a pre-treatment for enzymatic hydrolysis of salmon by-product proteins. Results show that PEF treatments at 15 and 20 kV/cm improved flavourzyme (FV) enzymatic activity by altering the protein's tertiary structure, decreasing its surface hydrophobicity and intrinsic fluorescence. PEF improved the hydrolysis process, especially when both FV and salmon protein were subjected to PEF, increasing the hydrolysis degree and peptide yield from 9.6 % up to 16.6 % and 10.6 % up to 18.7 %, respectively. PEF-assisted hydrolysis modified molecular weight distribution of the peptides obtained, increasing the amount of 3 and 5 kDa peptides. Optimal antioxidant and anti-ACE activities were achieved by applying PEF at FV and SPI at 50 Hz and 15 kV/ cm. These findings suggest that PEF is a promising technology for producing bioactive peptides by increasing enzyme activity and improving the obtained peptide yield.